Amanda Illegs is a junior attending Del Mar High School. She attends an outside program called Silicon Valley Career Technical Education (SVCTE) that provides education towards future careers.
So far Amanda has many good things to say about her class Fire Science. Fire science is a class Amanda wants to take as an extra step toward a career. This course is also part of Skills USA, a workforce development organization that provides skills for students to become professionals.
Amanda has had this career in mind since seventh grade. She has always wanted to be a firefighter to help others and better the community by being there to lend a helping hand for those in need.
Amanda’s teacher, Chief Tapia, has a few words for how amands is in class and suggestions.
“She is doing well. She does work continually and strength training is a thing she has to get stronger at to continue in this path,” said Chief Tapia.
Amanda Illges has been attending the Fire Science class through the Silicon Valley Center for Technical Education (SVCTE) since a week before Del Mar started. So far she has really enjoyed the class and her classmates.
She says she is doing well in her class but has her ups and downs.
“The easiest part of the class is asking for help from my teacher and my classmates, and overall just feeling supported by my classmates and supporting each other. But a big challenge that I face in that class is sometimes not feeling like I could continue with it, because sometimes it gets hard,” said Illges.
Since starting this class Amanda has had a lot of new experiences. The class teaches students things like taking vitals, blood pressure, patient packaging and patient assessment, as well as firefighter skills.
“Patient packaging is getting your patient ready for transport and moving them by putting them on a backboard, sometimes putting a C collar on them to prevent further injuries,” said Amanda Illges.
Fire Science students learn how to take blood pressure and other important skills needed to be an EMT.
Amanda chose this program because she really enjoyed what she saw when shadowing the class and liked the aspect of professionalism. Amanda has contributed to the class by lending a hand when practicing technical skills causing her classmates to realize she’s outgoing, funny, hard working.
Her heroes are her parents for being there supporting her and working hard for her to pursue her dreams.
She wants to pursue Fire Science further and main purpose in this career is to help people and serve people.
“In this class I want to see if the fire service is really something for me and I want to get the skills to prepare me for entering the fire service or EMS,” states Illges.
